News in Married

Amoris laetitia is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis. It follows the Synods on the Family held in 2014 and 2015. Amoris Laetitia (The JOY of LOVE) will be a valuable guide for all those engaged in ministry to those discerning and preparing for marriage and to married couples and families at all stages.

Catholic teaching might not change, but there are certainly some mighty lurches of style and register. The way papal encyclicals are written is sometimes as telling as the content. Pope Benedict’s encyclicals combined limpid beauty and elegance with the occasional longueurs of the academic monograph.

Following the audience, Frey had a difficult time putting his thoughts and feelings into words. He said he was still struggling to get a measure of the meaning of what had just happened and how it fits into his life. At one point, he said that the audience, the greeting, the hug had validated his faith as he had not expected.

Theologians and bishops gathered in Rome last week to reflect on the thorny issues of love and sexuality ahead of this year’s major meeting on marriage and relationship. In the current climate of polarisation in both the Church and society, any attempt to differentiate approaches to the pressing questions of our time risks being denounced by one side or another.

The true story of Joseph of Nazareth begins with love. He falls in love with a wonderful, the prettiest girl in town and its surroundings -the most beautiful in the world, we would say-. What to do for her to fall in love for him? That she will look to his eyes sometimes?

I must admit that my wife and I have had our ups and downs over the past seven and a half years. Whether financial, spiritual or simply the difficulty of having four children within six years, we haven’t necessarily found some magic formula that helps us push through.

I have just finished attending the Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, convened by the Holy Father, Pope Francis. It was my privilege not only to listen to the debates and interventions, but I also had the privilege of addressing the assembly on the role of the clergy in family renewal.

Divorce is never easy. From the realization that love has failed to feelings of shame and a tendency to assess blame, divorce poses an untidy conundrum for families even when a couple settles on an amicable legal separation. In the eyes of the church, a divorced couple remains married until a decree of nullity is issued, if a couple chooses to go that route.

Maurice and Helen Kaye celebrate 80 years of marriage. The pair say the secret of married life is kindness, love and tolerance. A couple who met as teenagers 10 years before the start of World War Two have celebrated 80 years of marriage.

At the end of his homily during the Canonization Mass for Saints John XXIII and John Paul II, Pope Francis said something that I hope will prove highly significant over the course of the next couple of years and far beyond.

Five steps local churches can take to save marriages and prevent divorce. In Metro Washington where I live, there were 15,800 divorces compared to only 24,600 marriages, for a divorce rate of nearly two-thirds. Does marriage matter? Isn’t it a private issue concerning two people? No. I’d argue that every divorce is the destruction of a small civilization.

In its approach to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, the Catholic Church needs to find a middle ground that does not destroy or abandon doctrine, but offers a "renewed" interpretation of church teaching in order to help those whose marriages have failed, Cardinal Walter Kasper said.

After the announcement of the extraordinary synod that will take place in October of 2014 on the pastoral care of families, some questions have been raised regarding the question of divorced and remarried members of the faithful and their relationship to the sacraments.

Painting the Catholic Church as "out of touch" is like shooting fish in a barrel, what with the funny hats and gilded churches. And nothing makes it easier than the Church's stance against contraception. Here's the thing, though: the Catholic Church is the world's biggest and oldest organization. It has buried all of the greatest empires known to man. It has establishments literally all over the world.

Ministers must do more to encourage marriage and support stay-at-home mothers, the UK's chief rabbi has said. Lord Sacks, who is about to step down from his post after 22 years, told the Times the government "should certainly recognise marriage in the tax system".

The Act does not change our Catholic teaching about marriage. In contrast to the new law, Christian teaching holds that marriage is a life-long, faithful commitment between a man and a woman, ordained by nature and by God for the creation of the family and future generations.

The Roman Catholic church could face legal action for refusing to carry out gay weddings despite Government assurances it could not, a committee of MPs and peers has warned. Catholic bishops were advised earlier this year that they might have to stop carrying out weddings in the way that they currently do.